Psalm 71:1-6 “I Will Ever Praise You”
1. The psalmist says “I will ever praise you”!
• Because God is Refuge, God is stronghold, God is Solid Rock, God is Masada is a high, defensible rock plateau in Israel.
• When David was fleeing for his life from King Saul, “[he] remained in the strongholds the place known as Masada
• In the wilderness … Saul sought him every day, but the LORD did not give him into his hand.” (1 Samuel 23:14). David uses the word masada in 2 Samuel 22:2-3a when eh says “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge. …”
• I will ever praise you says the writer Verse 6 clearly states: “Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. …” In a sense, God was his midwife. In verse 5, he states confidently: “For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth”
2. The psalmist writes that God has been his Masada rock refuge strong hold
• Vs 5-6 the writer tells us God has always been with him. “you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,my confidence since my youth. “From birth I have relied on you, you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.
• God is his rock, his refuge, stronghold His enemies say 10 For my enemies-speak against me; those who wait to kill me conspire together. They say, “God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for no one will rescue him.”
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3. The psalmist writes that God will act on his behalf.
• God will act on his behalf against the threats of his enemies. God is “my trust” He feels secure/safe, to rely on
• Daniel believed this “Daniel was lifted from the den of lions no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.” God acted on his behalf
• God is a Protective strength against those who would bring harm
• The three Hebrew boy Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown in the fiery furnace but the fourth man protected them
4. The psalm-writer believes God is his protection and strength God is his rock-fortress God is an formidable protective strength against those who would harm him. “Rock of refuge”
• God is the Rock of Ages Rock of Ages, cleft for me
Let me hide myself in Thee
Let the water and the blood
From Thy wounded side which flowed
Be of sin the double cure
Save from wrath and make me pure
• God is the sheltering arms I am Living by Faith in Jesus above, Trusting confiding in His great Love, From all harm safe in his sheltering arms, I am living by faith and feel no alarm.
• God is the Everlasting Arms What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
• I will ever Praise Him God is God is Refuge, God is stronghold, God is Solid Rock, God is Masada, Yes God is Rock of the Ages, God is Sheltering Arms, and God is Everlasting Arms
5. Finally, God is
• our rock and our fortress, our eternal and unbreakable hope.
• Like the mineral called garnet, there is no pressure that God cannot endure, no temperature that God cannot survive, and no depth that will separate God from us.
• “For you, O Lord, are my hope,” says the writer of Psalm 71, “my trust, O LORD, from my youth” (v. 5).
